Point Horror: Identity Theft Part 8

I didn't bother to say anything as I trailed behind them to Geoff's BMW. He pushed down the front seat so I could squeeze into the back.

"Maybe she really is sick," Mom murmured up front, sure that I couldn't hear her, even though we were only separated by a few feet.

"Maybe," Geoff said disinterestedly. "I'll tell you what, I'd have gotten sick if we stayed at that pizza joint. My wine tasted like turpentine. I get that they want to be homey, but do they want to poison their guests?" he boomed.

Just then, my phone quacked, startling me so much that I dropped it. I groped the floor mat with my fingers, finally picking up the phone from under Geoff's seat.

I had a new text from a blocked number.

That was a good show today. Maybe too good. Ever heard the phrase 'on thin ice'? Better lace up ...

I gasped.

"Hayley?" Mom craned her neck to glance back at me.

"Fine!" I said in a high, artificial voice.

"You know, she had to get up so early and she was studying all week. She's been pus.h.i.+ng herself a lot. And she's never really been rebellious. It could be a stage. Let's just give her some s.p.a.ce." Mom murmured to Geofferson in the front seat, as if I weren't sitting two feet behind them.

Her words swam through my mind as I stared at the text. The screen darkened. I pressed the b.u.t.ton on my phone and, again, the text lit up, as shocking as the first time I'd seen it.

"Sounds like those academic types gave you the smackdown, Comet. I thought I had it tough with football. I never knew the nerds ... uh, I mean, the smart kids ... were the real warriors," Geoff boomed from the front seat.

"Right," I said faintly. He had no idea. I'd been through a battle today, but this was war. And I had no idea who I was fighting.

Once we came inside, Sadie began barking and jumping all over me.

"What's going on, girl?" I ruffled her fur as I surveyed the kitchen. The messy pile of mail on the edge of the table, the breakfast dishes from this morning, the falling-apart cabinet door. All the same. I felt my breathing begin to return to normal for the first time since the car ride home.

Mom and Geoff were standing in the breezeway, their coats still on. Geoff had his arm slung protectively around Mom's shoulders.

"Mom?" I asked, noticing she hadn't moved.

"Oh, honey, I'm going to stay with Geoff tonight. You need your rest," Mom clucked.

"No, I'm fine," I said. I took a few steps toward the refrigerator and squinted at a photograph of a girl - me - fastened near the ice dispenser with a magnet. The refrigerator door had always been covered with photos of me as a child. But this one was new. The girl's face was turned up, pink plastic sungla.s.ses glinting in a beam of light. She looked like she was five or six, but she had long, tangled, sun-highlighted hair that fell past her shoulders.

That wasn't correct. When I was six, Keely and I had played endless hours of beauty parlor, meaning that both of us had uneven, bowl-shaped haircuts that hadn't grown out until the third grade.

"Are you hungry now?" Mom asked, following my line of vision. There was a slight edge to her voice.

"Yeah, Comet, you should eat," Geoff concurred. "And so should we," he added, placing his hand on my mother's waist and pulling her toward him.

"No. I'm fine." I redirected my attention toward the cabinets, Sadie's crate, somewhere, anywhere else. Now, I was questioning my own sanity. Someone had put that photograph there. It hadn't been there this morning. Had it? I remembered how tired and achy I felt, how it seemed I was moving in a foglike dream state, how I had to spend most of my energy convincing my mother I was okay. But this wasn't. I wasn't.

"Hayley, you're exhausted. I respect that. We'll give you some quiet time and you and I will talk in the morning. I don't leave for Boston until Monday." I waited for her to come over toward me and ruffle my hair or kiss the top of my head, but she didn't.

"Mom ..." I trailed off. At least Sadie had stopped barking. I sniffed the air, but the only scent was the wood smoketinged wind from outside. Still, my missing bracelet from this morning and the photograph on the fridge made it clear that someone had been inside the house.

Or they were still here.

I gasped, despite myself, a strangled cry that got stuck in my throat and caused my hand to fly to my neck.

"Hayley?" Mom asked. Sadie barked from the corner.

"I'm fine. I'm sorry, I just got ... something stuck in my throat," I lied. I didn't want them to leave, but I didn't know how to explain what was wrong. "You guys should go. Seriously, go," I said, my voice taking on an urgent edge.

"Wendy, come on," Geoff urged, his hand on the small of her back.

"If you're sure," Mom hesitated, and I saw her gaze flick over to the refrigerator.

"Go!" I practically pushed Mom out the door, feeling simultaneously relieved and terrified when the door clicked closed.

I heard the ignition of Geoff's car and saw the swath of lights pan across the living room as he drove down the road. I was alone.

Or maybe I wasn't.

"h.e.l.lo?" I yelled. Sadie barked in response. My heart beat in my ears. I raced up the stairs to my bedroom. I glanced around wildly, not sure what - or who - I was expecting to see. My bedroom looked the same as always. The window seat below the eave was covered with rejected blouses and tights from the morning. The hardwood floor was scattered with notebooks and highlighters, and socks that Sadie had dug from the hamper. I opened my drawer, but everything was exactly where it had been when I'd come in earlier.

I looked at the tray where I kept my jewelry.

And then, I screamed.

The bracelet was back, the ID plate glinting toward me like it was winking. I grabbed it with one hand, realizing I was holding my cell in a death grip with the other.

Grabbing my bag, I raced down the stairs, up the gravel path, and into the street. My legs were pumping, my eyes were flicking back and forth, and I wasn't sure where I was going, only that I needed to get away, as far and as fast as possible.

Finally, at the corner, I stopped, resting my hands above my knees as I caught my breath. As my gasps slowed to uneven pants, I began to sort through the thoughts swirling through my mind.

I was safe. No one was chasing me. Around me, everything was normal. It wasn't even nine o'clock. Down the street, an elderly couple was walking a s.h.a.ggy golden retriever. The house on top of the hill had all its lights on, looking warm and inviting. In contrast, the only light on in our house was the one in my bedroom.

I squinted at it. The room was empty.

And yet I knew I couldn't go back inside. I needed to go somewhere with lights and people and noise where I could actually figure out just how crazy I was going.

And the only place I could think of was Alyssa's barn party.

I s.h.i.+vered as I walked through the split-post fence gate and around to the barn. Even from a distance, I could see that this party was far more crowded than the one last week. The speakers seemed to echo through the damp ground, and the tiki torches that lit the path to the barn made me feel like I was entering into a tribal ritual.

I threw my shoulders back and walked into the barn, which was lit only by large white candles held in hurricane lanterns. The flickering flames cast shadows across the wall, and I had to squint to make out individual faces in the crowd. I saw Keely, Ingrid, and Emily huddled by the ladder to the hayloft and was about to head over to them when someone lumbered over to me.

"Hayley!" Matt flung his arms around me, catching me off guard. I took a step back and he let go.

"You need a drink!" He took an uneven step toward the cooler set up in the corner of the barn.

"No, that's fine." I wanted to redo the hug. That had been where I'd felt safe. But he'd already unsteadily lurched away.

I was about to follow him when Alyssa grabbed my arm.

I whirled around, ready to explain that I wasn't cras.h.i.+ng her party, at least, not really, but she had a huge smile on her face. "Thanks for coming!" she squeaked in her high-pitched voice.

"Oh, thanks for inviting me!" I said hurriedly.

"It's just ... you were so stuck-up and annoying for so long, and now you're actually becoming fun! Like, normal fun," Alyssa explained, her eyes widening. "It's nice."

Keely, Ingrid, and Emily glanced in our direction. Keely looked at me, then at them, then at me again, before heading over, like a lioness stalking her prey.

"Hayley, you beast!" Keely called by way of greeting, her voice ensuring that everyone was now looking at us.

"Hey!" I called uncertainly. Was beast a term of hatred or one of endearment? It was impossible to tell. I felt like I'd fallen into an alternate universe where nothing was what it seemed. What would be next? Would I not get the Ainsworth but win Homecoming queen? Would I discover that my subconscious actually had been posting the status updates, give up on excellence, and find satisfaction in some random skill like cake decorating or basket weaving? I hugged my arms tightly around my body, as if preparing for an attack from Keely.

"Hiiiiii!" Keely drew the word into six syllables. Clearly, beast=friend. I mentally filed away the information. "It's, like, so awesome to see you. Except why are you wearing that?" She wrinkled her nose at my still-Ainsworth outfit, which included a pair of pantyhose that were digging into my waist.

"Because ..." I was about to explain the Ainsworth, Geofferson, how freaked I'd felt alone in my house, but I'd stopped myself. What good would that do?

"Well, whatever. You should change. Will's been asking about you all night." She rolled her large gray eyes conspiratorially, as though she were sharing inside info.

"Will?" I repeated.

"Yeah. I guess he's looking for a repeat performance from last night. He's over there if you want to say hi, or ... you know." She burst into giggles while I blinked curiously at her. I glanced over her shoulder at Will Thorn. A hulking junior, Will was a goalie on the hockey team. He'd had a full beard since seventh grade, around the same time that he probably read his last chapter book. He was funny, loud, and had once hosted an impromptu barbecue in the parking lot by wiring a George Foreman grill under the hood of his car. He and I had nothing in common. I didn't even think he knew who I was. There was no way any interaction between us - an excuse me in the hallway or accidental eye contact across the cafeteria - could ever be construed as a sign we were together.

I blinked. "I think you're confused," I said carefully.

Keely shook her head adamantly, her blond hair whipping across her thin shoulders. "No! You and he were, like, intense last night. You guys are kinda cute together, actually."

"Wait. So, you mean, you saw Will and me together last night?" I'd been asleep. Hadn't I? I remembered the woozy, out-of-it feeling I'd had when I'd woken up. The way it had felt like I'd been walking through a fog. Could I have sleepwalked to a party and hung out with Will? It didn't seem likely. And yet when nothing made sense, this seemed to at least be a hypothesis that could work.

Keely laughed, a single snort.

"What?" I asked.

"You and Will."

"What about us? I mean, what are you talking about?"

"Nothing. Just that you guys looked like you were having a good time. Look, it's cool. It's just ... weird."

She had no idea how weird it was. And before I could ask any more questions, Kendra wandered over to us.

"Hey, honey!" she cooed. I stiffened as she grabbed my shoulders and kissed me on both cheeks. "So, you know the pictures from last night? I know there were a ton of inappropriate ones, but can you send me the kind of okay ones for Spectrum? It might be cool to intersperse them with the profesh ones. I mean, I guess? I should probably go to a meeting, right?" Kendra muttered to herself as she pulled a can of Red Bull from her bag and cracked it open.

"Pictures," I repeated numbly, not even bothering to tell her that I wasn't even the editor in chief anymore. I glanced over at Will, who now had two forty-ounce energy drinks taped to each of his hands. Oh my G.o.d. "There are pictures from last night?"

"Obvi." Kendra shrugged and wandered into the barn.

"'There are pictures from last night?'" Keely asked in a singsong voice, imitating me. "h.e.l.lo, of course there are! You can ask her not to share them or show them but it's just weird to totally pretend like they didn't happen." Her eyes flashed accusingly.

"Right ..." I trailed off. "I'm sorry, it's just ..."

"That scholars.h.i.+p thing?" Keely asked knowledgeably. "Look, whatever. You can have fun and be smart. You don't have to choose. You do know that, right?"

"I guess so." The way I was interacting with Keely made me feel like an imposter. Why was I just going along with whatever she said as if it were true? The old Hayley, the real Hayley, would have done something by now. So why was I just going along with everything?

I remembered a movie we'd seen in Psych cla.s.s last year. It was called Sybil, about a woman who had multiple personalities and literally didn't remember who she was or what she'd done. Could that be what was happening to me? And if so, what did it mean that one of my personalities was attracted to Will?

Keely stared at me, unblinking. "Good. I'm glad you've learned your lesson."

Learned your lesson. The words tugged at my brain. But before I could ask what she'd meant, Matt lumbered toward both of us from the cooler in the corner, holding a bottle aloft as though it were a trophy.

"Look, Keely ..." I said desperately as Matt stood in between us.

"You don't need to, like, a.n.a.lyze!" Keely interrupted. "Just have fun. With whoever you want," she added meaningfully, jutting her chin toward Matt as she wove her way through the crowd and toward the cooler in the back of the barn. Matt and I were alone. I s.h.i.+vered.

"You have a problem," Matt said, interrupting my thoughts.

"What do you mean?" I asked sharply.

"Whoa!" He held up his hands and took two steps away. "You don't need to attack. It's not a bad problem."

"Well, then what is it?" I asked.

"You look thirsty." His voice sounded almost deflated as he pressed the cold bottle into my hands.

"Thanks." I took the drink and held it against my forehead.

"You okay?" Matt asked.

"I guess. It's just ... long day." It was ridiculous to try to have a conversation when I felt I was only moments from throwing up, having a heart attack, or both. But what else could I do? My house was haunted. I was either possessed or sleepwalking or had an undiagnosed case of multiple personality disorder. At this point, maybe trying to act normal was crazy, but it was the only thing stopping me from snapping.

"Yeah." Matt s.h.i.+fted from side to side. A whoop of laughter emerged from the barn. "This party's kind of lame, isn't it?" he asked finally.

Was it? The conversations drifting from the barn were about school, TV, and Instagram filters - the same stuff that was discussed in the hallway at school. Everyone was wearing jeans and fleece pullovers. The scent of incense wafted through the air, mixing with the scent of burning leaves. I was surrounded by people I'd known since kindergarten. It felt safe, a word I'd never imagined using to describe being surrounded by Keely and her crew.

"I like it here," I admitted quietly. I thought of my empty house. Booting up my laptop and not knowing what I'd find on the screen. The intermittent text messages from a blocked number, never threatening enough that I could go to the police.

"Are you sure? You seem kind of shaky." Matt gazed down pointedly at the hand holding my drink. Drops of liquid were jetting from the top like a broken fountain.

He put his hand on top of mine to steady it. I placed the bottle down and wiped my hand on my skirt.

"Do you want to go somewhere to talk?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said quietly.

Matt glanced toward the barn. "Let's go. You aren't missing anything. I saw Keely giving you kind of a hard time. Girls are tough, right?"

"Yeah." I nodded meekly.

"Look, where do you live? I'll drive you home, then we can talk. If you want. Cool?"